By DON McCORMACK - donmac@suite224.net
Sports Editor
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Paying a rare Sunday morning visit to the variety store...
Spartan fever
Talk about perfect timing! Coming off the biggest Conneaut football victory in several years, it was reported to us yesterday that Spartan fans who missed out on seeing the inspiring effort by coach Ken Parise's Spartans in their 14-0 victory against former Northeastern Conference rival Lakeside on Friday night at the new Municipal Stadium will have opportunites to see the triumph, after all.
A partnership between WWOW (AM-1360) and Cable Suite 541 will allow Conneaut fans to listen to all four home games live this season.
The Dynamic Duo of Conneaut High School sports — Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation Founders Nick Iarocci and Mike Joslin — will be handling the broadcast of the action. Dave Arcaro is handling pregame, halftime and postgame chores.
But wait, there's more.
After each game, at 10 p.m. — or 30 minutes after the curtain comes down on the contest, whichever comes first — the Spartans' contests will be televised on Ch. 116 of Cable Suite 541, with the audio of the efforts by Iarocci, Joslin and Arcaro corresponding with the video feed, with the esteemed Ken Johnson and his fine staff being the masterminds behind the video production.
The broadcasts will be rebroadcast on Conneaut Cable Access Channels 6 and 21 throughout the week as well, giving everyone who bleeds Blue and Gold plenty of opportunities to catch Parise & Co. in action.
"This is a great partnership between the Conneaut Telephone Company and WWOW," Iarocci said.
Tennis, anyone?
It really is amazing what one can learn, see and here just by being conscious.
Case in point, the recent first tennis match at the beautiful new tennis courts at Falcon Pride Stadium in Jefferson.
That day, the Lakeside Dragons were invading for a matchup with the Falcons, which featured a reunion of former Ashtabula High School tennis legends — Bob Walters of Lakeside and Lou Murphy of Jefferson.
Walters was the coach of the great Ashtabula teams that interupted the incredible run of NEC championships by the area's best tennis program (boys or girls), Geneva, for a two-year span in the fall of 1977 and 1978. One of Walters' best players on those teams was Murphy, who then went on to stardom collegiately at Edinboro.
That day, I spent a few minutes chatting with Walters' assistant coach, Leslie Douglass, herself a former great player at Geneva and later Mount Union College.
"I love teaching and coaching!" Douglass, a Star Beacon Ashtabula County Player of the Year during her days as a standout at Geneva, said. "I'm so happy I made the decision to go into education.
"It's something I absolutely love doing."
Then, I crossed paths with a guy I hadn't seen in years, Steve Reichert, owner-operator of the fine Sports-n-Sports stores in Ashtabula Township and Madison.
"Business is good, it's a very busy time with school starting back up," Steve, who was on hand watching daughter Megan play for the Dragons, said. "We consider ourselves fortunate to be holding our own in this day and age."
And finally, there's Walters, the former superstar basketball player at both Ashtabula and Baldwin-Wallace College. He has been coaching tennis for more than four decades, not to mention serving a long tenure as boys basketball coach at Ashtabula.
Walters was the man at the controls of the great Panthers squad of 1977-78, which won our popular "Hoop Dreams" tournament a few years ago to establish itself as the best boys basketball team in Ashtabula County history.
"There's no way, looking at that man, anyone in the world would guess he has been coaching for 40 years!" a woman said when his history was relayed to her. "He looks tremendous."
As I mentioned, pretty good stuff, huh?
Holding court
Speaking of Jefferson's new tennis courts, there are six courts and lights will be added in the middle of this month.
Right now, they are not open to the public to prevent them from being damaged by the surrounding landscape, which is still being groomed, and the courts are expected to be opened up to the public in the very near future.
The next level
Loyal Readers will note we have been running our "Staying in Touch" list from time to time on these pages. If you have a student-athlete playing a college sport during the fall whom we do not have listed, please drop me a line at the email address listed at the end of this "effort" and let me know.
Radio waves
Joe "Mr. Sports" Pete — aka, The King of Ashtabula County Media — has announced that the Media One broadcast of the Edgewood-at-Lakeside contest Friday night will follow the lead of the company's first two games, which featured Howland at Lakeside in Week 1 and Berkshire at Edgewood two nights ago, and will be broadcast on the company's country FM station, WYBL, 98.3 The Bull.
Mr. Sports, Rad Brad Ellis, Dale "Iron Gut" Milano and Nick Billman work the broadcasts.
McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Read his blog at donmac1.blogspot.com. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.
